Overview
There’s no better place to explore building a startup than during your time as a student at UC Berkeley. Surrounded by ambitious & talented people and industry leading professors, there’s endless potential to create the next big thing. This course is designed to teach and inspire students to use their knowledge to build startups. We will be going over the basic building blocks of a successful startup and connect this knowledge to emerging fields. In addition, we will be providing an overview of the startup scene at Berkeley, pointing out resources ready to help students get a headstart.
Course Structure
The course meets once a week on Mondays. Each class of the week will feature either an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, or professor to share their experiences and knowledge in a particular area of building a startup.
Assignments
Assignments will include preparing well-drafted and insightful questions for each speaker on a weekly basis. Each homework will be worth 1 point and in order to pass the class, you must have at least 7 points by the end of the semester. There will also be a short paper (2 pages) at the end of the semester based on student’s comprehension of articles (i.e. Paul Graham’s Essays)
Attendance
Attendance is mandatory and will be taken every class period. In the case of an absence, please notify us ahead of time; you can also keep up with the speaker series online as we’ll likely record them. Students with more than a total of 4 absences will be failed.
Grading
Grading will be based on attendance (30%), assignments (50%), course evaluation (10%), and paper (10%). Students must receive above 70% in the class in order to receive a Pass.
Reading
The class will have required articles for reading (will be disbursed later). These articles will be used to complete the written paper.
Outside of articles for the paper, there is no required reading in this class. We do have a couple of recommended books:
Zero to One (Peter Thiel)
The Hard Things about Hard Things (Ben Horowitz)
Hackers and Painters (Paul Graham)
Required Materials
A computer with internet access is required to complete assignment. If a student is unable to access a computer we will also take assignments on paper on a case by case basis.
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